Name: Meat, Game, and Almond Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart of stock; 1 pint of milk; 2 hard-boiled eggs; 1 ounce of almonds; 2 ounces of bread crumbs; 2 ounces of cooked white meat or poultry; seasoning to taste

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Meat, Game, and Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

Mince the cooked meat and pound it in a mortar with the bread and the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs, adding hot stock as needed.
Finely grind the almonds and add them to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan with the stock.

Make the custard

In another saucepan, heat the milk with a blade of mace until hot but not boiling.
Strain the beaten eggs to remove any specks, then blend them with a little of the hot milk.
Add the egg mixture to the rest of the milk, ensuring it does not boil to prevent curdling.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together858 recipes

Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs: Yolks bind the pounded mixture and add richness and body to the soup.
Milk: Adds creaminess and a soft, smooth body to the soup.
Almonds: Contribute nutty flavour and body as finely ground particles thicken the soup.
Bread crumbs: Help thicken the pounded mixture and give the soup body.
Cooked white meat or poultry: Provides savoury flavour and substance to the soup.
Stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the milk. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so the mixture must stay below boiling to remain smooth and thick.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, bread, meat):

Pecansfits better
Cocoafits better
Peasfits better
Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, bread, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Meat, Game, and Almond Soup